


a rose by any other name

by nihilego



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, M/M, Prince Jeremy AU, also known as the pronce au, being in a medieval setting will not stop jake from using the word bro, royal au, sorry michael isnt in here but he will be in future parts, this fic is apart of the eternal crusade to make more richemy fics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-09 23:44:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12899415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nihilego/pseuds/nihilego
Summary: Jeremy is the prince, bored and frustrated with the various suitors that have come his way. Rich is just a poor knight who grows roses because of his hopeless crush. Jake just wants to see his friend happy.





	a rose by any other name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mikey_melon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikey_melon/gifts).



There is a rose laid across the stone ledge of Jeremy’s window.

The rose is a dusty pink, almost turning yellow in some places, beautiful in it’s imperfection. Jeremy instantly loves it more than the various other flowers placed in his window; they were all carefully dyed, each petal a consistent, artificial color. This more natural rose seems more personal, more modest, and Jeremy treasures it.

Jeremy is used to roses placed on his windowsill, or before his door, or the occasional bouquet placed on his bedside table, if the gifter is particularly brave. Actually, many gifts make their way into his room; it comes with being the prince of a significantly affluent kingdom. Just another fact of life; greet the citizens, watch a joust and reward the winner, come back to his room and find several gifts from hopeful suitors, et cetera et cetera. His life has almost become predictable at this point. 

But still, this rose. It’s the most memorable one he’s gotten in awhile—the last one he can recall with the most clarity was the crystal blue one he got a year or two ago, the fakest of them all—and he feels the need to preserve this one as long as he possibly can. A few moments and a short question to a servant later and the rose has been placed in a simple glass vase filled with water. 

He has no idea who left the rose—no note was left with it—but that question can be answered later. Instead he studies the rose; notes the gradation from dusty pink to cream yellow to an off-white, enjoys the fact that the main color of the rose is a similar shade to the pink accents Jeremy usually has on his clothes. After his lengthy examination is done, he sets it back down in it’s glass container, content to let it become a gentle addition to his room’s decor.

\---

“Jake, I swear to the gods I’m gonna kill you.”

“Hey hey hey, I did that in your best interest, don’t blame me.”

Rich was really pissed at Jake. Very, very pissed. Pissed that Jake knew about his crush on the prince, pissed that Jake took one of his carefully grown roses, pissed that Jake placed it in the prince’s goddamn window as a gift from Rich.

“Doesn’t matter. Prepare to die, Dillinger.”

“You can’t kill me right now, our swords are in the blacksmith’s getting sharpened.”

“Then I’ll just wait. Or, like, kill you with my bare hands. You can punch someone to death, right?”

“Yes you can, but there is absolutely no reason for you to kill me. You said you wanted to give him a rose anyway! I was just trying to help.”

Alright, maybe it did help a bit. Rich had always wanted to give a gift to the prince, ever since he fell in love with the brunet royal years ago, when Rich came to the castle to become a knight in service of the kingdom. But Jake liked to tease him about his dumb crush, even though he would also catch Jake’s gaze lingering on the prince from time to time. So what if he started his extensive rose garden around the time his attraction grew deeper, and what if the best roses were in what he assumed was one of the prince’s favorite colors? That was just, like, coincidence or something.

“Ohhhh, I can see you’re reconsidering my untimely death,” Jake, the jackass, now looks smug in the fact that Rich will realise this is a good thing. “‘Jake, my bestest friend in the whole world, best and handsomest knight in the kingdom, you’ve helped me so much, and now I can hit on the prince all I want—’”

“Woah, woah, how in the hell is this supposed to help me?” Rich interrupts him shrugging off the arm Jake placed around his shoulders while he was trying to put words in the shorter knight’s mouth. 

“Don’t you get it?” At Rich’s confused shake of the head, Jake sighs, and then starts to explain. “Your rose was on his windowsill, he’ll _obviously_ love it, and boom, you’ve got a prince that’s, at the very least, interested in you.”

“You put a shitty rose from an anonymous person in a place he might not even see it. It doesn’t mean we’re now gonna get married or whatever.”

“Not yet. Patience, Richard. First roses, then rings.”

“Oh ha ha.” Rich turns, ready to leave this conversation behind and finally get his daily training done with. “Even if he magically falls in love with me, there’s no way his dad is gonna give him away to someone who isn’t a royal or filthy rich.”

“C’mon,” Jake places his hands on Rich’s shoulders, trying to ease his friend’s negative thoughts. “I believe. Love triumphs all, or whatever.”

“Yeah, sure. Can we just, go to training now? Leave the roses talk for when we get back home?”

“Fine. But as soon as we get back we’re making a game plan, rose boy.”

\---

The plan was fairly simple, considering.  
Rich absolutely could not reveal himself as the one leaving the roses. That was too far of a step to take in a short time. So, they planned to make the roses distinctive, so that Prince Jeremy would be able to discern them from the rest of the flowers he must receive. A simple pink rose with a baby blue ribbon tied around its stem is all he would leave; no note or anything else. It was anonymous enough to ease Rich’s anxiety, but unique enough to maybe lead to something.

Jake then tried to inject something about a proposal and a wedding into the plan, but Rich shut that shit right down. There was just no chance of something like that happening.

So Rich fell into a pattern: tend to his garden, attend knight training alongside Jake, sneak a rose into the prince’s room, try not to die from anxiety. 

It was just that simple.

\---

Jeremy was getting a little frustrated with these unclaimed roses. He loved them; the appearance of the second one was a shock, and he treasured each one that was placed in his room while he was out, but now he wanted to know who was leaving them.

The mysterious person was obviously a suitor, or at least attempting to be one. The roses weren't dyed, meaning that the gifter either grew them or did not have the money to buy perfect, unnaturally colored ones. And no note meant that they didn’t want to be known, at least not yet; most suitors loved to loudly claim their elaborate gifts. 

So Jeremy had a shy suitor who was possibly a gardener. But how would they have gotten into the castle? The only ones allowed access to the floor his room was on were him and his father, advisors, other titled persons, the knights, and a few trusted servants. He didn’t think anyone from that group would be his mysterious rose suitor. Maybe they snuck in? No, that couldn’t be right; no one was foolish enough to sneak into the castle once, much less multiple times.

He halted in his thoughts, finally reaching the door to his room. He was tired after working with his father and the royal advisors all morning, and if his distracted thoughts were any indication, he severely needed a rest. Jeremy opened the decorated door, resigned to deal with any presents left while he was gone.

Of course there were some. There was an obvious one placed directly on his bed, likely by one of the servants. It was a furnished box, and the crest on the lid made Jeremy want to brush it off the bed and kick it under his bed to be forgotten forever. It was from one of his most annoying suitors, but they were significant enough that he would have to open it, and write some sort of letter as thanks. He placed the box on his bedside table, resolving to deal with it later when the task seemed less daunting. 

Another glance around the room revealed what Jeremy was actually looking for: a spot of pink amongst the blues decorating his room. It was almost embarrassing how quickly he rushed over to the window to retrieve his gift, but luckily he was alone. But it was still childish how excited he got over a simple rose—his father would probably scold him for behaving this way—but his life was kinda boring, so he would take excitement where he could get it.

Jeremy gently removed the rose from the window, and felt the soft petals for a moment, examining the flower, before going to place it into the vase that contained several other pink roses. After awhile he had to ask for a larger vase, the vast amount of roses overflowing in the smaller first one. Now he had a decently sized ceramic one with patterns carefully carved into the clay. Still, with the amount of roses he was receiving, it was likely he would have to ask for another one soon. 

Maybe Jeremy was frustrated by his lack of knowledge of the rose suitor. Maybe he just wanted them to reveal themselves and, he doesn’t know, sweep him off his feet or something. But maybe he could just make do with these tiny gifts for now.

Just for now.

\---

This was the worst plan Rich had ever had. He should’ve just stuck with the single rose gift, but no, his idiot brain had to think about this, and now here he is. Several of his best roses freshly cut, the blue ribbon he always used, and a sheet of white paper he bought from the market just for this.

A bouquet was too much. Was it? Yes, yes it was. Far too much. Honestly, even continuing with the singular roses was too much. Rich should just toss all of this in the trash, and stop thinking about the prince at all—

“Oh my god you’re finally doing it.” Oh boy, know he had to deal with Jake encouraging this crazy idea. “Giving a bouquet of self-grown roses to the prince. You’ve come so far, Rich.”

“This is the worst idea in existence.” Rich slams his arms down on the table, and starts to drag them across so that all the materials are sent to the floor, but Jake reaches down and grabs his wrist, stopping the motion.

“Hey hey hey, no it’s not! You’ve been giving him roses for, like, forever. It’s totally time to step up your game!”

“No it’s not. What if he didn’t even like the first rose? What if this is just a nuisance for him?”

“I can absolutely confirm it's not.” Jake glances to his left and right, like he's about to say something really private, even though only the two of them live in this house. “Don't tell anyone, but I _may_ have bribed one of the servants to keep an eye on how he treats your roses.”

“Jake! That's like, probably illegal.”

“I doubt the king is gonna care that I spent the paycheck he gave me to ask about whether or not pink roses were found in the garbage. And they haven't been in the garbage, by the way. In fact—”

“Nope, don't want to hear it.”

“ _In fact_ , my informant said that some other servant saw a vase full of pink roses on Prince Jeremy’s bedside table.” 

“Oh my god.” Rich could just die right now. Seriously, the earth could open up and swallow him right now, and he would welcome death. “Kill me now.”

“Can't do that, bro. Who will give the prince his _favorite_ roses if you're gone?”

“Continue my legacy, Jake. Become the suitor he probably thinks I am.”

It would be better if Jake was behind the roses, actually. Jake was from an influential family, was a skilled knight; far more likely to be a match for the prince. Jake would probably be a good king too, even. 

Maybe Rich should just give up.

“No way dude. You’re gonna become his favorite person, and since you’re, like, the best person ever, he's gonna fall in love with you and shit.”

“Jake, this isn't some dumb fairy tale.”

“You don't know that! Show me some evidence that says it isn't.”

“Okay, you're getting a bit existential, Jake. Why don't you leave me to make this bouquet in peace?”

At Rich reassuring the fact that yes, he is making the bouquet still, Jake’s face lights up. He points finger guns at Rich, and backs out of the room while constantly making a clicking noise with his mouth and winking. Very reassuring.

In the meantime, Rich turns back to his flowers, and prepares to make a half-decent bouquet for the prince.

\---

This was a terrible mistake. 

The paper cradling the roses was already wrinkled and sweaty from where Rich had been nervously clenching and unclenching his fists. Some of the petals were damaged, and he had to stop the urge to run back home and replenish the bouquet with freshly cut flowers. He kept twiddling the card he had written a (admittedly kinda pathetic) note on, almost running the careful lettering Rich had slaved over.

At least he had the common sense to wait outside the prince’s quarters in the hallway and not inside the room. The prince would likely not respond well to a strange man in his bedroom, hopeful suitor or not. Plus, a knight being present in this hall wasn’t necessarily suspect; Rich could always just hide the bouquet behind his back and leave if he got too nervous upon seeing Jeremy.

Soon enough the saccharine voice of the prince echoed from one of the adjoining halls, and Rich’s anxiety increased tenfold. It didn’t help that he was likely talking to someone; the only thing that would make this anymore awkward would be the presence of a third party.

Jeremy’s voice got closer and closer, and Rich’s hands tightened around the bouquet more and more. _Just tell him that you’re behind the roses_ , Rich thinks to himself. _Introduce yourself, give him the roses, let him know about your other gifts. Easy._

“Yes, yes, I know I have to be at the seamstress’ in a hour, thank you. I will go down to the carriage in a moment, I just need to check my room first.”

Jeremy was getting frustrated with just about everyone in this castle. His father had become very overbearing recently, royal guests kept on trying to socialize with him, the knights kept practicing under his window and disturbing his private time, his minders were getting on his last nerve—

A bouquet was laid in front of Jeremy’s door.

The bouquet was made of the pink roses that had infatuated Jeremy. The bouquet had a card on the top.

The suitor had finally left a card.

Discarding all thoughts about his previous conversation, Jeremy half desperately bent down and picked the card up off the top, quickly scanning the text. There would be time to read the body of the message later; for now he needed to find something specific, something he had been wishing for with every gift that had ended up in his hands. He eventually found what he was looking for, right at the bottom of the card:

_Forever yours,  
-R_

It wasn’t much. It was just an initial—no guarantee that was even their real initial—but it was _something_. Whoever R was, they were the one behind the roses, they were responsible for the splash of color amongst Jeremy’s dreary, hueless days.

Now cradling the bouquet in his hands, Jeremy tried to fight down the silly grin that was breaking out across his face (he couldn’t and eventually he just planted his face into the flowers, giggly and blushing like some sort of lovestruck fool, which he basically was). His hand finally disengaged from holding the flowers and found it’s way to the doorknob, twisting the polished metal to gain access to his room. 

Strolling happily into his room, Jeremy resolved to ask for another vase before he left the castle grounds.

\---

Okay, so he chickened out. Normally he would be kicking himself for that, but he did stay behind to watch the prince’s reaction from behind a corner, so he wasn’t in desperate need of a reprimand. 

The prince had picked up his flowers. The prince had smiled at the gift laid across his doorstep; he had buried his face in the bouquet with a blush on his face.

Jeremy liked his roses.

There was still anxiety in his body, coiled around his heart like a snake, but there was something...hopeful now. His gifts weren’t being ignored. His personally grown flowers were appreciated, weren’t thrown in the trash like they didn’t have any worth. He had a _chance_.

He had to go grow more roses.

**Author's Note:**

> hey y'all i wrote this dumb fic at like 1 am for my friendo and didn't proofread it at all so i hope its not too bad
> 
> also, did i use too many modern things in this fic? yes. do i give a shit? no.


End file.
